H1 renewal in Argentina - old out of status question

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dewey_daniel

Registered Users (C)
Here is my case,
I-140 I-485 filed together
I-140 EB1, RD 04/21/05 ND 06/01/05 AD 01/06/05
I-485 RD 04/20/05 ND 05/19/05
FP booked for 07/08/05

I have an H1 visa good until August 31st 2005.
Got the renewal approved (from 09/01/05 to 2008).

Call US consulate in Argentina. They book me for an interview and told me to bring documents and evidence of my intentions to come back Argentina (???). How am I going to show intentions to come back to Argentina if I applied for I485? Has anybody had any problems in renewing H1 when I485 is pending?

Another problem: in 1996, I was out of status 97 days. Completely innocent. Not on purpose. The place where I worked screwed the IAP 66 and when we requested it again, the ECFMG told us that they had stopped the processing and then they had to issue a new one but could not cover from July 1st and put my OOS. The consul at that time interviewed me, gave me a hard time and that was it. I got my new J1 in 96, then in 97, then an H1 in 2002. Would it be a problem for me to get out of the country now that my I485 is pending?
 
dewey_daniel said:
Here is my case,
I-140 I-485 filed together
I-140 EB1, RD 04/21/05 ND 06/01/05 AD 01/06/05
I-485 RD 04/20/05 ND 05/19/05
FP booked for 07/08/05

I have an H1 visa good until August 31st 2005.
Got the renewal approved (from 09/01/05 to 2008).

Call US consulate in Argentina. They book me for an interview and told me to bring documents and evidence of my intentions to come back Argentina (???). How am I going to show intentions to come back to Argentina if I applied for I485? Has anybody had any problems in renewing H1 when I485 is pending?

For renewing H1 you no need to prove your non immigrant intention ( whether you are going to come back to Argentina)
Another problem: in 1996, I was out of status 97 days. Completely innocent. Not on purpose. The place where I worked screwed the IAP 66 and when we requested it again, the ECFMG told us that they had stopped the processing and then they had to issue a new one but could not cover from July 1st and put my OOS. The consul at that time interviewed me, gave me a hard time and that was it. I got my new J1 in 96, then in 97, then an H1 in 2002. Would it be a problem for me to get out of the country now that my I485 is pending?
Click to expand...
 
Guru, thanks a lot. I also think this was just some formality that the scheduling agent has to say to whoever applies or renews a visa.
 
dewey_daniel said:
Here is my case,
I-140 I-485 filed together
I-140 EB1, RD 04/21/05 ND 06/01/05 AD 01/06/05
I-485 RD 04/20/05 ND 05/19/05
FP booked for 07/08/05

I have an H1 visa good until August 31st 2005.
Got the renewal approved (from 09/01/05 to 2008).

Call US consulate in Argentina. They book me for an interview and told me to bring documents and evidence of my intentions to come back Argentina (???). How am I going to show intentions to come back to Argentina if I applied for I485? Has anybody had any problems in renewing H1 when I485 is pending?

Another problem: in 1996, I was out of status 97 days. Completely innocent. Not on purpose. The place where I worked screwed the IAP 66 and when we requested it again, the ECFMG told us that they had stopped the processing and then they had to issue a new one but could not cover from July 1st and put my OOS. The consul at that time interviewed me, gave me a hard time and that was it. I got my new J1 in 96, then in 97, then an H1 in 2002. Would it be a problem for me to get out of the country now that my I485 is pending?
Click to expand...
H1 recognizes dual intent completely.
You don't have to prove anything -- in fact you can clearly state that you have a pending 485 and you plan to become a US PR -- the consulate CANNOT deny your H1 visa for expressing immigrant intent.
The law is worded very clearly regarding this.
 
A follow up note in case this may help someone going to Buenos AIres for H1 renewal. I requested appt for H1 renewal one month ahead but as of July, it is possible to obtain an appt the next day. We went for interview in Buenos Aires on 07/18. The interview went smooth. Took our fingerprints and asked a few questions: Who do you work for, what do you do, how much money do you make, when was the last time you had been in the US, why were you in India? (I was there once), all these while putting stamps on our passports. He said that my visa was approved and returned old passports and kept the new one. He said that my new passport would arrive in the mail in 48 hours with the visa stamp. However, I noticed that the old passport he just returned to me had the current visa cancelled without prejudice. I told him that with this visa cancelled I could not go back to the US. He said that that was not the case since I had a new visa and I can not have two visas of the same kind. We went back and forth many times until he got up and asked somebody else and came back apologetic, saying that we were right. The new visa covers the period from 9/1/05 to 8/31/08 and the old one was expiring on 08/31/05 and he was not supposed to cancelled it. Made us wait for a while and called us back. He was going to solve it by giving us two visas, the old one and the new one. Sent us out to pay to DHL the fee and as we were leaving, they called us from inside since the Consul had forgotten to take our FP for the old H1. On 07/20, I’ve got my passports with the new H1 but not the old one. Next day I received a call from the US embassy saying that I would not be allowed to enter the US as I was and that I needed to go back to the embassy. They again apologized for the inconvenient. Therefore I had to go back to the Embassy next day where they re-issued my old visa back in 30 minutes. The whole thing took like a week. Of note, entering the US, the immigration officer did not even look the old visa, just the new one.

Although the consul inappropriately cancelled my old visa and made me go twice to the Embassy, he was very apologetic, even when they called me at home several times to make sure that I had received the message that was due to return for the old visa stamping. It was a good gesture from them.
 
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